East Coast blast ends Spurs' 7-game streak

Published 11:26 pm, Thursday, January 3, 2013

NEW YORK — This time, there were no coach seats to book, no six-figure check to write.

With his Spurs team facing its fourth game in five nights for the second time this season, coach Gregg Popovich did the cost-effective thing. He loaded 14 somewhat healthy, sort-of rested bodies on the Spurs' charter flight in Milwaukee and flew them — all of them — to New York.

By the end of a 100-83 loss to the Knicks on Thursday night, Popovich had at least discovered a less expensive way to buy rest for his aging veterans.

Get blown out by enough points, and none of them have to play in the fourth quarter.

It was an assessment Popovich mostly agreed with, with one caveat. If the Spurs looked flat, the Knicks at least had a hand in making them that way.

Returning to their defensive roots that had fueled their early season success, the Knicks (22-10) held the Spurs to a season scoring low and 36.4 percent shooting.

New York brought a screeching halt to a dominating seven-game winning streak for the Spurs, who had been averaging close to 112 points during it.

Before the game, Knicks coach Mike Woodson showed his players “a feel-good tape,” demonstrating how well they had played on defense to start the season.

“We were doing everything right at the beginning of the season,” Woodson said. “There was some major slippage.”

The Knicks seemed to work out all their kinks at once Thursday.

Tyson Chandler and Marcus Camby, a pair of long and rangy defenders, teamed to close off the paint to the Spurs' offense, limiting leading scorers Parker and Tim Duncan to 11 points apiece.

Manu Ginobili finished with eight points off the bench, shooting 2 of 10.

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Check out more sights from the Spurs' setback at Madison Square Garden.

A night after racking up 58 points in the paint in a high-powered 117-110 win in Milwaukee, the Spurs managed only 12 against the Knicks. They had only four until Tiago Splitter's basket-and-a-foul with 9:15 left in the game.

“It was very hard for us to find any way to the rim,” Ginobili said.

If there was anything about Thursday that might give the Spurs pause, it is this: Despite a 26-9 overall record, they are only 2-6 against the other top five teams in the league.

Carmelo Anthony had 23 points for New York, while Chandler added 10 points and 14 rebounds and J.R. Smith provided 20 points off the bench.

Playing his second game of the season after an offseason knee procedure, former All-Star Amare Stoudemire had 10 points and was mostly a non-factor for the Knicks.

Leading 67-60 after the third quarter — and less than that for much of the night — the Knicks blew the game open by making their first nine shots of the fourth.

A 10-0 run to start the frame put New York in front 77-60, prompting Popovich to leave his starters on the bench.

“I could see it wasn't going to happen,” Popovich said. “Too low on fuel, and their defense was too good. Bad combination.”

Asked when he could sense his team running out of gas, Popovich said: “About a week and a half ago.”

The last time the Spurs faced a four-in-five-nights scenario, Nov. 29 at Miami, Popovich's decision to send four players home — via Southwest Airlines, no less — netted a swift rebuke from NBA commissioner David Stern and earned the team a $250,000 fine.

That came at the end of a 10-day road trip, which had been preceded by a six-day trip and was to be followed by an eight-day trek a week later.

“This one, everybody's pretty healthy and we've had time (off),” Popovich said before tipoff. “It's a little bit different circumstance.”

The results, however, were more or less the same. The Spurs closed an otherwise standout stretch with an explainable loss, then returned home — all of them this time — to prepare for a game Saturday against visiting Philadelphia.

“We've had a pretty good run, and (the Knicks) played great,” Popovich said. “It's a long season, game on Saturday. That's the one that matters now.”